How To: Create Easy Video Montages For Your Family

Want to learn how to easily make movies from all those snippets and videos you captured of your family and friends? You can definitely do it! Check out this simple resource guide to show you all the tools to make it happen. It’s easier than you think, so be sure to check it out! (And it works for bloggers and businesses too).

Aren’t all those videos we take of our families on our cameras and phones so cute?

We take them, watch them a few times and then seem to lose them in cyberspace (or in my case, they just consume all the memory on my phone…).

I love finally getting around to doing something with the videos, my favorite project of which is turning all those videos into fun montages.

When I first decided to pull together our videos, I didn’t have a clue where to start. How to keep everything organized? What programs to use? How much work is involved and where to find the time? It all seemed overwhelming.

I knew the Apple enthusiasts used iMovie, but we have a PC. I know I know. Almost blasphemy. From someone with a creative passion, I’m a PC fan through and through. Don’t forget, I’m also an accountant, which explains the PC affinity.

We used to have a Mac. We still have iPads and my husband has an iPhone, but I now use a Google Pixel phone. But Microsoft Office on a Mac is horrendous, and I actually enjoy using Excel and Word for certain personal things. I also use a PC at work, so I like the continuity from work to home. But I digress…

If you’re interested in turning all those various clips and videos into more substantial movies, rest assured you can definitely do it. It takes a small time commitment, but it’s totally doable and something you can fly through in a couple of hours (I like to do it during nap time on the weekends).

I’ve got all the details below to help you pull together the pieces to make your own family videos shine.

And if you happen to be a blogger or business owner, this all applies to making videos for blogs and social media as well!

Recording Videos

A wide array of options are available for recording videos. You can use something as simple as your smart phone. I use my DSLR camera (a Canon 70D) and this 50mm lens or this 24-70mm lens. The DSLR, as you might expect, provides better quality than a smart phone, but it also comes at a higher price. No matter what tool you use to record the videos, just be sure you can save the videos to your computer and you’re set to go.

Saving and Organizing Videos

I find it’s helpful to take photos and videos off my camera or phone once a month or once every other month. Depending on how often you take photos and videos, this might be more and less frequent.

To keep them all organized, there are plenty of options that can work. As one idea, I save all my photos and videos by year and then by month. For January 2016, for example, I have a folder called “16 01 Life Misc”. Within this folder, I have a folder for videos and a folder for photos. When I have a significant event with lots of photos, like a big trip or family function, I make a special folder called “16 02 Los Angeles” for our trip to Los Angeles in February 2016, for example. Naming the folders by year and then by month ensures they automatically save in chronological order, which works for me.

You can save your photos and videos on your computer hard drive, an external drive (like this flash drive I use) or a cloud storage system like iCloud, Google Drive/Photos, or Dropbox. I used to use Dropbox instead of something like iCloud because it’s not tied to a specific operating system, and I can access it from any kind of computer. Now, I use Google Photos and Google Drive, which is particularly easy because I have a Google Pixel phone. Photos and videos sync between my Photos account and my phone, which is great. None of these options are free beyond a limited amount of storage, but any method (hard drive, cloud, etc…) will cost a minimum fee of some sort. I used to pay a small annual fee for our Dropbox space, but so far I’ve been able to use my free space on Google Photos without any issue.

Movie Making Software

Most often, iMovie is the default movie making software recreational movie makers like to use. I haven’t used it but I hear it’s great and easy to use. As I mentioned earlier, though, I’m a fan of PCs and don’t have a Mac.

Turns out, Windows offers a free program called Windows Movie Maker (at least it came “free” with our paid Windows operating system). Low and behold, it’s quite good. Although it hasn’t been as touted as I might expect, Microsoft seems to be catching up to our good old friend, The Fruit, in certain areas where it has traditionally lagged, like recreational movie making for Joe Schmoes like me.

On the toolbar below, you can see that you can change the video volume, modify the speed and trim the length of the clips with relative ease.

Windows Movie Maker is really intuitive and easy to use. My videos aren’t going to be winning the Cannes film festival anytime soon, but I finished my very first video montage (music and everything) in about three hours. That included some Googling and Help section searches to figure out how to use the program, searching for the right song in iTunes, and pulling together all the pieces in Movie Maker. Since then, I’ve made several in under an hour (including saving the videos from my camera, organizing the videos, picking out music, etc…)

Update: Movie Maker still works if you have it on your computer, but Microsoft no longer supports it and you cannot download it. I switched to ShotCut, a free software you can download. It only took me a couple hours to make my first video with it. ShotCut has a series of tutorials, access to which is built right into the software, so it’s really easy to learn how to use. I definitely recommend this for those just getting started with creating videos.

Whether you use a Mac or a PC, iMovie, ShotCut or Movie Maker are all really intuitive and easy to use. Don’t let the software trip you up out of fear it’s too complicated to use.

What About Sound

Sometimes the original sound from the video is relevant to maintaining the memories. Other times, a montage with music overlay creates a fun cohesive story for the whole event.

The movie making software makes it easy to choose one song to play during the whole connected movie of videos and clips. When you want the sound from the original video, however, it’s easy to fade out the music during that particular section to hear the words in the video and then fade the music back in if and when you want it to overlay the videos. (I did this toward the end of the DIY Confetti video at the bottom of this post.)

When making these montages, I generally prefer to add a music overlay to string together the disparate videos. For the movies I have made, the music helped to make the string of videos feel more cohesive, but it’s certainly a matter of preference and context.

Here are two great options for music, depending on your needs.

ITunes

The Fruit still wins the battle of providing music. When I wanted a particular song, I downloaded it from iTunes. You can then upload it from your computer into Movie Maker and you’re good to go.

Due to copyright laws, you can’t make money off of these videos when using iTunes. The iTunes download doesn’t buy the proper type of rights. If you upload a video using this type of music to YouTube, will likely receive a message that the music is copyrighted and you’re not allowed to use it. But for purposes of fun, non-commercial family videos, go nuts.

Audioblocks

If you want more wordless options or you’d like videos that you can use for commercial purposes, check out AudioBlocks. They have all sorts of music and sound effects that are easy to scan, find what you’re looking for, categorize for later use and download to your computer. With a membership, all downloads are royalty-free. I really like it a lot.

It’s not crazy expensive, but certainly not cheap and definitely not targeted toward sporadic personal use. I use Audioblocks to create videos for the blog (did you know I have a baby YouTube Channel?). It’s easy to use and has tons of sound options.

If you make lots of family movies and videos or are using the videos for a blog or other commercial purpose, definitely check it out. If, on the other hand, you’re only creating personal movies every once in a while, I’d recommend sticking with iTunes downloads.

Share on YouTube

Once you’ve made the video montage, share it with family and friends (of course)!

YouTube offers both public and private channels. I think this is the best option given the simplicity and price (whopping zero dollars). Google owns YouTube so you connect your personal channel with an existing Google/Gmail account. If you don’t already have one, they’re easy enough to create.

In addition to my Honestly Modern YouTube channel, I have a separate private YouTube channel for personal videos that I share with friends and family. It’s been really fun for us to share these with our families that all live far away.

Easy Tips for Better Movies and Montages

As I’ve made a handful of videos over the last several months, I’ve picked up a few easy tricks that make the movies smoother and better.

Record All Videos Horizontally

While you can record vertical videos on your phone, nearly all recreational video and movie making software and applications assume horizontal orientation. If you’re planning to make a movie from your videos, be sure to film all the videos horizontally. While I assume more advanced videographers can crop and modify orientation of videos, it’s not particularly simple in beginning movie making software.

Fade Frames Between Videos

Using the fade option in the edit function sometimes creates a more seamless transition between clips as you piece together videos from various parts of the event, trip or occasion you’re highlighting in the video. I use it sometimes, though not all the time. Give it a shot and see which way you like better, but know that it’s an option.

Add a Title Page and Ending Credits

Opening and closing pages with text help give context to the video when you’re watching it down the road. Windows Movie Maker automatically adds the extra slides at the beginning and end when you set the frames to fade during transition. Adding text is also quite simple.

As I’ve started to make more videos, I use Canva to create images for the intro and ending slides. You can upload photos in the same way that videos are uploaded.

Text Overlays During the Movie

When it makes sense, you can also add text overlays over the video to describe important parts or areas where you want to give context to the memory. In the video below, I added several text overlays to help with instructions. You won’t likely have instructions on personal family movies, but I thought this could help illustrate simple edit options.

Fading Music at the Beginning and End of the Video

Most likely, the beginning and ending of the music you choose won’t perfectly align with the length of your video. Fading the music volume in at the beginning of the video and out at the end of the video enhances the finished feel of the movie. It also gives the viewer audible indications of the beginning and end of the video so these portions don’t feel unexpectedly cutoff or incomplete. To me, this very small change made a really big difference.

Below, you can see the Music Edit functions have a simple and straightforward tool bar to make the changes easy.

You Can Definitely Do This

Before taking an hour or two to figure out how to make these videos, it completely intimidated me. I remember sitting in a blog conference years ago listening to a speaker talk about the growth of video. I barely listened, writing it off as something outside of my comfort zone. I’ll never do that, I thought…

Making just a few movies taught me I how wrong I was. The software companies have made movie making intuitive and easy for all of us.

If you’re curious about video or have been thinking about trying it out, definitely give it a shot. Be sure to give yourself a good window of uninterrupted time the first time you try it out. But you can definitely do it!

If you give it a go, let me know how it works and if you have any questions.

Good Luck and Happy Filming!

Here’s one of the first videos I made for the blog, a DIY Confetti video, that I mentioned above! You can also head to my YouTube channel for more current videos (and be sure to subscribe)! I add new videos regularly.

Welcome to this space all about Sustainable Living for Modern Families. Dive in for ideas to help families pursue more eco-conscious and intentional living in a modern world. Find out more about Jen and the blog.

LET’S CONNECT

STAY CONNECTED

Start your journey toward Lean and Green Family Living. Sign up to receive a 5-day email series loaded with simple steps to help you and your family make more intentional consumption choices on the road to sustainable and eco-friendly living.

It's totally free, includes exclusive content not on the blog, and your email address is our little secret. I pinky swear!

SERIES

I am an affiliate with certain companies. Some of the links I use on my blog are through affiliate links. This means I may earn a very small commission if you make a purchase. The affiliate link and any potential commission have no impact on your purchase price but help cover the expenses of keeping up the blog. You can also see the blog’s full privacy policy and affiliate disclosure for further information.

I’m a Member

5 Day Email Series to Kickstart Sustainable Living for Modern Families

We use cookies to offer you a better browsing experience, analyze site traffic, personalize content, and serve targeted advertisements. If you continue to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies.